NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> Reports of my death...
ONLINE-ADS>> Reports of my death...
Mark Surfas (Mark_at_criticalmass.com)
Mon, 28 Sep 1998 18:39:36 -0500 (CDT)
Go ahead and get the flame-throwers ready, it's time to party!
IMHO, There are 3 camps here:
1. Ad Buyers
2. Ad Networks
3. Content Creators / Ad Sellers
I'm watching the ad buyers here try to convince each other
that the $1 cpm is here (and briefly at that as we
theoretically move down to the 10 cent cpm, etc ) and that
they are scoring some manner of coup in finding sites that
will sell banners as cheaply as possible. Nonsense. All it
means to me is that they are taking the easy way out by
using a metric that invokes a kneejerk response. Their
argument goes like this: "You can't convince me that your
eyeballs are better than anyone else's, so cheaper is
better".
The odd man out here is the Content Creator, IMHO. The
attitude here seems to take the content creator for granted,
which I believe is a mistake and here's why: Sites with
great content can and will attract a passionate audience
that will potentially fit into various demographics that
will make sense for various advertisers. Sites with poor
content will attract "surfers" that will not be back.
Before you write me off as a Content Creator, not only do I
run websites, but I sell software, which I buy/trade ads for
on other sites so I see both sides of the equation.
I'm here to tell you that I believe it's going to take hard
& savvy work on the part of ad-buyers to identify a rapidly
moving target: the high-value online content partner. Today
several of my sites are among the best of their kind: High
traffic with loyal users. Several are not. 6 months from
now the situation may be reversed as the tastes of the
viewers change.
Here's the Napalm:
Some Ad Networks and Some Ad Buyers have entered into what I
will call an unholy alliance:
The Ad Networks don't own or create content - they simply
take a split of the sale so they are far less vested in
seeing a strong ROI. SELL SELL SELL is all that matters....
and price is of secondary importance. The Ad Buyers place
primary importance on PRICE.
Lazy Ad Buyer Meets the Ad Network Sales guy with tons media
for sale that he/she knows little or nothing about and
simply wants to turn into a commodity. If he/she is selling
a commodity then it's old-boy network / relationship
creation time. I admire this from a distance - this is
simply free enterprise at work where the buyer can't
distinguish the difference between a commodity and a
possible brand.
This equation works *extremely well* for both the network
and the ad buyer! The Ad buyer gets tons of impressions and
since "eyeballs are eyeballs" they feel they've done a good
job. The Ad Network has succeeded in selling the space
available - a job well done! Even better, they have done
themselves a double favor: By driving down CPM they will
make entry into the market that much more difficult and less
appealing creating a stranglehold on whichever content type
they are selling ads for. We're watching several major
competitors of ours attempt to do exactly this. Until this
insanity is over.... we're just hanging in there.
Mark Surfas
<Mark_at_criticalmass.com>
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